The flexible display device field has received much attention due to its feasible manufacturing via a roll-to-roll process. Roll-to-roll production has several potential benefits such as known precise coating techniques, potentially cheaper manufacturing costs, and faster production cycles.
Manufacturing passive matrix devices via a continuous web line poses a problem in singulating the devices with simultaneous access to the conductive electrical leads buried within the passive matrix device. Flexible devices that are conducive to a passive matrix driving scheme, such as cholesteric liquid crystal display devices, usually contain rows and columns of conductive traces such as indium-tin oxide on opposing substrates through which the electrical pulses or signals are sent to switch the devices. Conductive traces are patterned on top of substrates such as a polymeric substrate. Obtaining access to these electrical leads in a device produced via a roll-to-roll process is challenging because, given identical width webs, all the contacts are buried inside the construction.
This is partially alleviated by offsetting the substrates giving access to the electrical leads running perpendicular to the web direction. Alternatively, the top and bottom substrates can be cut to different sizes to singulate the devices without losing access to the electrical leads. Conventional cutting techniques are especially difficult for devices with thin display material coating between the substrates. Cutting through one substrate without scratching the electrical leads on the opposing substrate is not trivial since very few precise-depth cutting technologies can be accurate in the micrometer range.